Lorne on the significance of the PSX

[Zukan]

Fifteen years ago today the original PlayStation launched in Europe, ushering in a new era of videogames and changing perceptions of the business forever - from niche nerd past-time to credible and cool home entertainment.

To celebrate the history and achievements of Sony's first home console, leading developers have shared with GamesIndustry.biz their own personal favourite games, those titles that set new standards and helped define the hardware, and the lasting legacy the system had on the videogame industry.

What were you doing 15 years ago?

In 1995 we were still madly trying to figure out how to burn CD's without write failures due to trucks passing by outside. My, how the times do change.

What were your favourite games on the original PlayStation?

My two favourite games on the original PlayStation were Loaded and Driver. With Loaded, PSX had just come out and this updated mix of Smash TV meets guts out lunacy was completely addictive in two-player mode. It was also a cool production design with excellently executed lighting effects for the day.

Was one of the first times where the weapon lighting effects on the environment really had that visceral popping impact that firearms should have in simulation. We had a blast with that game and even referenced how they did a number of the light effects for how we would approach some of the effects in Abe's Oddysee.

With Driver, this game had it going on way before most even tried to pull it off. The true genre predecessor to Grand Theft Auto, even though Grand Theft Auto never got a burnout button right like Driver did. Driver's burnout button made all the difference in the world, and for the first time you actually felt like you were in high speed pursuits in an open city. That button gave you an entirely different level of control over the physics and fun factor just in raising havoc with your car.

The controls and physics of the cars in that game still supercede the feeling of most driving games today. They just nailed it for the day and it was amazing the degree of simulation that they were running that early on the PSX. It was absolutely my favourite game of the era, and also the first time I ever wrote a fan mail to a game company.

Which titles would you say have been the most influential?

I would have thought that Crash Bandicoot would have had the most impact, as it had such tremendous sales for the era, but in hindsight its interesting how little those genres are moving forward on consoles. Then there was the Final Fantasy games, which had enormous sales, yet they too did not tend to shape much into the future. So I'd have to say it was probably Tomb Raider that had the most impact on games going forward. How many games have we seen and still see that are taking the format of the genre seriously.

At the time, it was the best looking real-time environments in a game and the blend of story, action, and adventure has only taken off all the more since then. I'd have to say it was Tomb Raider that had the most influence on games to come.

What has been the legacy of the original PlayStation?

It was the first real viable CD-ROM based system that had enough horsepower to start ushering in those next-gen games. It was also a great system for playing around with bitmaps in a new way and the more memory enabled games like Oddworld to start being made with the graphics quality we were looking for. In many ways, I'd have to say that the true legacy of the PSX was that it did shine the light on the next generation of 3D gaming possibilities for consoles. It was a great system and its dev environment was more reasonable than its later incarnations.

Gamesindustry.biz

[MeechMunchie]

Hey, Lorne likes Crash. OANST should be happy about that.

[GlukkonGluk]

What about Spyro the Dragon? In fact, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Abe the Mudokon himself were all considered the PSX's unofficial mascots, and they're still around today. I think they deserve a mention somewhere

[Hazel-Rah]

The Playstation certainly did change everything and it has some games on it that I'd play on my death bed but I really don't like the kind of people it was marketed towards, douchebags.

[erwinraaben55]

Hey, Lorne likes Crash.

Euh? Who doesn't????

[Dynamithix]

Euh? Who doesn't????

OANST.

I bet you were waiting for this answer...

[enchilado]

Crash Bandicoot has the stupidest story, the stupidest characters and the most mediocre gameplay of anything I've ever played.

Spyro the Dragon (at least the first few) had the worst graphics of any 3D game I've ever played, along with the worst creature designs.

Oddworld had the best graphics I've ever seen for its time, the simplest yet most addictive gameplay (though I've only ever played the PC versions), the most beautiful and original creature designs, the most likeable characters, the greatest plot... it's a hundred times better than Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon put together.

As far as the PSX itself goes, I'd have to say that I've never used any earlier game console except the Gameboy (and that was after I'd played a PSX anyway) so I don't know how great and innovative it was.

[Wil]

Fun Fact 1: Lorne didn't say there that he liked Crash Bandicoot. He said that, without the hindsight he has now, he would have thought the Crash Bandicoot games would have been the most influential on gaming.

Fun Fact 2: Lorne was influenced by Crash Bandicoot and Mario in that their generally cartoony art styles made him realize they were proven visually successful with that generation of hardware, which is why Oddworld characters are as cartoony as they are.

[Crashpunk]

Crash Bandicoot has the stupidest story, the stupidest characters and the most mediocre gameplay of anything I've ever played.

Spyro the Dragon (at least the first few) had the worst graphics of any 3D game I've ever played, along with the worst creature designs.

Oddworld had the best graphics I've ever seen for its time, the simplest yet most addictive gameplay (though I've only ever played the PC versions), the most beautiful and original creature designs, the most likeable characters, the greatest plot... it's a hundred times better than Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon put together.

As far as the PSX itself goes, I'd have to say that I've never used any earlier game console except the Gameboy (and that was after I'd played a PSX anyway) so I don't know how great and innovative it was.

You just pick out and shitted on my two all time loved VG Franchises.
and Crash Bandicoot had the best graphics of its time. Naughty Dog were so proud of that they were bragging to Nintendo in there Adverts.

[STM]

I like legemd of the gobbos, I think it was similar to Crash if I remember correctly.

[Crashpunk]

I like legend of the gobbos, I think it was similar to Crash if I remember correctly.

Fixed
Also the only game that is similar to Crash is Mario. Even though Crash was a obvious rip-off of Mario (Try telling me that at aged 6 )

[Phantasos]

Crash Bandicoot has the stupidest story, the stupidest characters and the most mediocre gameplay of anything I've ever played.

Spyro the Dragon (at least the first few) had the worst graphics of any 3D game I've ever played, along with the worst creature designs.

Oddworld had the best graphics I've ever seen for its time, the simplest yet most addictive gameplay (though I've only ever played the PC versions), the most beautiful and original creature designs, the most likeable characters, the greatest plot... it's a hundred times better than Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon put together.

As far as the PSX itself goes, I'd have to say that I've never used any earlier game console except the Gameboy (and that was after I'd played a PSX anyway) so I don't know how great and innovative it was.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

I thought the Spyro graphics were pretty damn good, and I played it last a few months ago.

[Hazel-Rah]

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

I thought the Spyro graphics were pretty damn good, and I played it last a few months ago.

Yeah really, Spyro the Dragon is still pretty, it's just so colorful and the detailed skies were just sooo ahead of their time.

[Crashpunk]

I think Crash and Spyro had equally good graphics.

[AvengingGibbons]

The scenes in Spyro's gameplay were more open. Crash's scenes were more compact and one-dimensional. It's a lot easier to design an attractive environment when you only have to worry about how things look from one perspective. Spyro had a [free-camera?] system, so the designers had to think about how things looked from every perspective.

[Hazel-Rah]

[Phantasos]

That was very informative :P Loved watching that.

[Crashpunk]

That really was informative. who knew Spyro was such a massive, complex game?